Bronchiectasis - How ya feeling?

Posted by barbfit @barbfit, Mar 22 12:00pm

Hi - I'm 64 years with and have had Bronch for 14 years. It's considered "advanced" now. I have had pretty much every bacteria and fungus throughout this time including MAC. Right now, for the first time in a long time, My sputum samples are good, I am not on any meds except my daily AC. I am otherwise healthy. My problem is I have daily fatigue, breathlessness and still cough up a lot of sputum (like a cup a day) as well as daily cough. But I otherwise feel well. I'm trying to determine if this is my baseline. In other words, are my symptoms from the lung damage so bad that I won't get any better? Does anyone have similar problems who have the condition without being in an exacerbation? My Pulm says it's hard to tell how I feel and says to do my best to push through to exercise my lungs (which I do). Any input would be appreciated. Thank you!

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@woot

My pulmonologist, head of bronchiectasis/Mac clinic at UNC wondered if I might have eosinophilic asthma. Tests said no. So she put me on Breo, an inhaled steroid. I had resisted because of Mac years ago, but she says benefits outweigh risks. I’m on day 13 of 30 days. Don’t know if it helps or not because of my good days/bad days.

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I also go to UNC! I have dr. Patel. He is always very empathetic and honest with me. A comment he made once is any pulmonologist that claims they know a lot about bronchiectasis doesn’t know a lot about bronchiectasis. There’s just not enough research to answer many questions, but that’s what we are trying to find out. In absense of infection, self care is the best treatment: Airway clearance, exercise (as much as possible) and sleep.

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